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How Manual Recalls Work in Dentally
How Manual Recalls Work in Dentally

An overview of how recalls work in Dentally...

Shelley Withington avatar
Written by Shelley Withington
Updated over a week ago

At Dentally we understand how important recalls are to your patients and your business. We want to make your recalls simple to use and as powerful as possible.  

Running your Recalls regularly means that you keep in contact with your patients, not only ensuring a great start to the patient's journey but also a guaranteed way to keep your appointment book busy.


An Overview of How Recalls Work

In Dentally, your recalls are generated weekly. Each Monday a recall is generated in Dentally for anyone who is due to see the Dentist or Hygienist for an exam or scale and polish type appointment, based on their next due date.

Think of the recall as being a 'marker' that is placed on a patient’s record to show that they are due to be seen. That 'marker' stays on their record and you can run a report on it, to see who has one, for what date and what status it has.

🗒️ Please Note: Patients that have booked their upcoming recall ahead of time, will still have a 'marker' created within Dentally however, these patients will move straight to the Booked status. Read more about the different statuses below 👇


Recall Status

These recalls have a number of possible statuses. These are:

  • Unbooked - The recall appointment has not yet been booked. These are the people who you need to contact to make an appointment to see the dentist or hygienist.

  • Booked - Once the patient makes an appointment of type Exam or Scale & Polish, the recall is marked to say it is Booked.

  • Completed - Once the patient’s Exam or Scale & Polish appointment has been completed, the recall is marked as Completed.

  • Skipped - You may wish to mark a recall as Skipped. This just means that this time around, you have chosen not to contact the patient.

  • Missed  - The patient didn’t make a suitable appointment. They will be recalled again.


Running the Recalls Report

When you run the Recalls Report and contact the patients, their recall will be stamped to say that you have contacted them and when. It will also be stamped to say how many times you have contacted them, for your reference. This is useful if you wish to send them a differently worded message when contacting them for a second or third time.


What happens when my patient attends their recall appointment?

If that recall is successful and the patient attends an Exam or Hygiene appointment, they will be given another Next Due date, based on their recall interval. This will then produce a recall as that date approaches.


What happens if the patient does NOT attend their recall appointment?

If the patient does not respond to their recall within their recall interval, their recall will be marked as Missed. They will be given another recall and will appear in your recall list again.

For example, if a patient has a 6-month recall interval and is due to be seen in January, they will be given a January recall. If they do not respond by July, that recall will be marked as Missed and they will be generated another recall in July. This will continue until the patient has not been seen for 2 years; at which point Dentally will stop automatically recalling this patient. You can, of course, run recalls for backdated periods of time to find these patients if you wish to.

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